Nepalese Abortion Law Faces Politician-Foe

By Aruna Uprety. 20 March, 1997

Kathmandu - Hundreds of poor, illiterate and desperate Nepalese women are
being imprisoned, torn from their children and often rejected by their
families upon release. The reason: a harsh law which equates abortion with
homicide.

Take the case of 39-year-old farmer Lok Maya Adhikari, who served a year's
sentence for infanticide. Married at 15 and widowed at 32 with five
children, Adhikari told the Japa District Court in July 1995 that she
became pregnant by a family-friend, who took her to a traditional
birth-attendant for an illegal abortion.

She was arrested two days later and, unable to post bail, was held in
detention until sentencing. Upon release she was ostracised by her
husband's family, who retained custody of her children. The alleged father
was also arrested but released after he denied responsibility for the
pregnancy and the abortion.

Fortunately, Adhikari did not pay with her life - for Nepal's abortion law
does not only punish, it kills and it maims. Every year thousands of women
seek out back-alley abortionists whose methods include administering oral
ingestion of chemicals and banned drugs. These 'quacks' are also known to
insert into the vagina such downright dangerous substances as mercury,
sharp pieces of glass and sticks pasted with herbal mixtures or cow dung.

Women die - often horribly - from haemorrhage, blood poisoning and uterine
perforation. Should they survive, they risk chronic disability or
sterility. And there are no mitigating circumstances under the law - even
in cases where the health or life of the mother is threatened, or the
pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

There has been little debate - let alone resistance - to the law so far.
But things could change for the better if Sunil Bhandari, a crusading
politician, can make Parliament see things his way - he wants the law
reformed.

The abortion law in Nepal is a bit of an anomaly. The United Nations Fund
for Population Activities' (UNFPA) latest (1992) data shows that Nepal, a
Hindu Kingdom, is one of eight countries with similar restrictions - most
of the others are Catholic. In India, the only other Hindu-majority
country, religion has been no bar to liberal abortion policies.

"Christians have shown stronger opposition, as missionaries have raised
their concerns about abortion," says Shyam Thapa, technical advisor to
Nepal's Ministries of Health and Population. So controversial is the
debate that the Nepal representative of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), Dr Al Nahi, while admitting that many women die of
abortion-related complications, declined to comment on the law.

Abortion-related complications are largely responsible for Nepal's
maternal mortality rate of 1,500 per 100,000, according to 1996 UNICEF
statistics. The figure is the highest in South Asia, and nearly double
that of the next in the list - Bangladesh. According to UNFPA advisor Dr
Rita Thapa, more than half of maternal deaths in five major Kathmandu
hospitals result from unsafe abortions.

Many abortion-related deaths go unrecorded, especially in rural areas.
Outside of Kathmandu and other towns, the law is pursued even more
zealously - often at the behest of inquisitive neighbours who alert police
if they suspect a widowed or unmarried women is pregnant and then 'loses'
the baby. Women's rights and legal activists are, however, unable to
obtain accurate figures for the number of women who have been imprisoned
under the law.

Signs of resistance are now apparent. A group of lawyers - the Forum for
Women, Law and Development - is now providing a free legal service for
affected women.

In general, nongovernmental organisations and women's groups have become
more aware of reproductive health issues since the 1994 UN Population
Conference in Cairo and the 1995 Women's Conference in Beijing. Lawmaker
Sunil Bhandari, who is President of the Family Planning Association of
Nepal, went to his Nepal Congress Party in July 1996 for permission to
present a bill calling for change.

The bill's recommendations include legalising abortions carried out by
registered physicians in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy and
thereafter in special cases like rape, incest, life-threatening situations
and where the foetus is diagnosed as being severely handicapped.

The Congress party refused it in committee, arguing that its passage would
lower the morals of young people. Bhandari's move to revive it - this time
with the support of lawyers and doctors - has sparked off rare media
interest on the issue. The original bill is being re-presented in
Parliament this year just as a survey in Kathmandu indicates that many
believe abortion should be legalised with some restrictions.

There is another hopeful sign: Nepal's newly-formed Ministry of Women and
Social Welfare has created 12 sub-committees, including on reproductive
health, based on the recommendations of the Beijing Women's Conference.

Women, the conference said, should have access to quality services to deal
with complications arising from abortions. And governments, it added,
ought to consider reviewing laws that punish women for undergoing illegal
abortions.